The Enderborn
by Krystal-Enderheart
Summary: Based off of Alfred Noyes' 'The Highwayman' this is a re-write of that but written to suit Yogscast Rythian's Minecraft Blackrock series. Warning: This poem contains suicide and also a lot of mushy stuff. This is a ghost/love/tradegy story, so it's pretty complex. Definately check out the original!


The Enderborn

**A/N: This is based off of The Highwayman by Alfred Noyes, and I do not own the characters or the original writing, I just had the idea. I hope you enjoy, and please review! You know, if you actually read these, start your review with AN. Have a cookie! (::)**

The wind was a torrent of darkness among the gusty trees,  
The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas,  
The road was a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor,  
And the Enderborn came riding -  
Riding - Riding -  
The Enderborn came riding, up to the blackrock door.

He'd a black cotton mask on his face, an enderpearl at his chin,  
A coat of the lilac velvet, and breeches of brown doe-skin,  
They fitted with never a wrinkle:  
His boots were up to the thigh!  
And he rode with a jewwlled twinkle,  
His red katar a-twinkle,  
His enderpearl a-twinkle,  
Under the jewelled sky.

Over the cobbles he clattered and clashed in the dark courtyard,  
And he tapped with his sword on the shutters, but all was locked and barred;  
He whistled a tune to the window, and who should be waiting there  
But the landlord's blue-eyed daughter,  
Zoey, the landlord's daughter,  
Plaiting a purple love-knot into her long red hair.

And dark in the dark old courtyard an oak fence post creaked  
Where the mad scientist listened.  
His face was white and peaked;  
His eyes were hollows of madness, his hair like mouldy hay,  
But he loved the landlord's daughter,  
The landlord's red-haired daughter,  
Dumb as a dog he listened, and he heard the sorc'rer say -

"One kiss, my bonny sweetheart,  
I'm after a prize tonight,  
But I shall be back with the yellow gold before the morning light;  
Yet, if they press me sharply, and harry me through the day,  
Then look for me by moonlight,  
I'll come to thee by moonlight, though hell should bar the way."

He rose upright in the stirrups; he scarce could reach her hand,  
But she loosened her hair I' the casement!  
His face burnt like a brand  
As the red cascade of perfume came tumbling over his chest;  
And he kissed its waves in the moonlight,  
(Oh, sweet red waves in the moonlight!)  
Then he tugged at his rein in the moonlight, and galloped away to the West.

He did not come in the dawning, he did not come at noon;  
And out o' the tawny sunset, before the rise o' the moon,  
When the road was a gipsy's ribbon, looping the purple moor,  
A red coat troop came marching -  
Marching - marching -  
King George's men came marching, up to the blackrock door.

They said no word to the scottsman, they drank his ale instead,  
But they gagged poor Zoey and bound her to the foot of her narrow bed.  
Two of them knelt at her casement, with muskets at their side!  
There was death at every window,  
And hell at one dark window;  
For Zoey could see, through her casement, the road the _he_ would ride.

They had tied her up to attention, with many a sniggering jest;  
They had bound a musket beside her, with the muzzle beneath her chest!  
"Now, keep good watch!" and they kissed her.  
She heard the dead man say;_  
Look for me by moonlight;  
Watch for me by moonlight;  
I'll come to thee by moonlight, though hell should bar the way!_

She twisted her hands behind her; but all the knots held good!  
She writhed her hands till her fingers were wet with sweat or blood!  
They stretched and strained in the darkness, and the hours crawled by like years,  
Till now, on the stroke of midnight,  
The tip of one finger touched it!  
The trigger at least was hers!

The tip of one finger touched it.  
She strove no more for the rest!  
Up, she stood to attention, with the muzzle beneath her chest.  
She would not risk their hearing; she would not strive again;  
For the road lay bare in the moonlight;  
Blank and bare in the moonlight;  
And the blood of her veins, in the moonlight, throbbed to her love's refrain.

_Tlot-tlot; tlot-tlot!_ Had they heard it?  
The horsehoofs ringing clear;  
_Tlot-tlot;tlot-tlot,_ in the distance?  
Were they deaf that they did not hear?  
Down the ribbon of moonlight, over the brow of the hill,  
The Enderborn came riding,  
Riding, riding!  
The red-coats looked to their priming!  
She stood up, straight and still.

_Tlot-tlot; _in the frosty silence!  
_Tlot-tlot; _in the echoing night!

Nearer he came and nearer!  
Her face was like a light!  
Her eyes grew wide for a moment; she drew one last deep breath,  
Then her finger moved in the moonlight,  
Her musket shattered the moonlight,  
Shattered her chest in the moonlight and warned him - with her death.

He turned; he spurred to the westward; he did not know who stood  
Bowed, with her head o'er the musket, drenched with her own red blood!  
Not till the dawn he heard it, and slowly blanched to hear  
How Zoey, the landlord's daughter,  
The landlord's blue-eyed daughter,  
Had watched for her love in the moonlight, and died in the darkness there.

Back, he spurred like a madman, shrieking a curse to the sky,  
With the white road smoking behind him and his katar brandished high!  
Blood-red were his spurs I' the golden noon; lilac was his velvet coat;  
When they shot him down on the highway,  
Down like a dog on the highway,  
And he lay in his blood in the highway, with the enderpearl at his throat.

_And still of a winter's night, they say, when the wind is in the trees,  
When the moon is a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas,  
When the road is a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor,  
The Enderborn comes riding -  
Riding - riding -  
The Enderborn comes riding, up to the blackrock door._

_Over the cobbles he clatters and clangs in the dark courtyard;  
He taps with his sword on the shutters, but all is locked and barred;  
He whistles a tune to the window, and who should be waiting there  
But the landlord's blue-eyed daughter,  
Zoey, the landlord's daughter,  
Plaiting a purple love-knot into her long red hair._


End file.
